


all thanks to everyone

by lutzaussi



Series: wood and flower [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe, BAMF Haruno Sakura, F/F, Gen, Just gals being pals, Sakura is a Mokuton User, Time Skips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-10
Updated: 2017-09-11
Packaged: 2018-11-21 19:34:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 18,587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11364174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lutzaussi/pseuds/lutzaussi
Summary: At age 12, Haruno Sakura learns she has the same kekkai genkai possessed by the man who created the modern world of the shinobi that she was born into.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [voldt](https://archiveofourown.org/users/voldt/gifts).



Three shuriken in her hand, three shuriken lobbed at the target. The tree trunk moves. Naruto and Sasuke are too wrapped up in another of their caused-by-nothing fights but Kakashi-sensei notices, flickers over from where he was trying to stop the boys. “Sakura,” he says, and she flinches, still staring at the slightly askew log she was throwing shuriken at, “has that ever happened before?”

There’s a tree in her backyard that is hundreds of years old that her father had wanted to remove after it had stopped budding. She had snuck out and pleaded with it (as if a centuries old tree would listen) and within a fortnight it had not only budded but it had cherry blossoms blooming on it. In August. Then the smaller things; the three desks in three classrooms grew roots, Inoichi started to invite her to the flower shop because in his words the bonsai “behaved” when she was there, her mother had to buy new metal chopsticks for the house because all of the wooden ones they had, lacquered or not, had begun to leaf.

Sakura has no shortage of incidents to choose from. But when she speaks, awkwardly because she’s only known Kakashi-sensei for a handful of days, she says, “When I was six. I fell out of a tree, but the tree caught me.”

-

Kakashi-sensei doesn’t say anything to her about the tree for three days. In fact, he doesn’t speak to her much at all because Naruto and Sasuke are so very present and  _ very _ violent that he spends most of those days cracking their heads together in lieu of getting a word in.

The fourth day Kakashi-sensei sets Sasuke and Naruto to training on their own—Naruto with chakra control, Sasuke with traps, because he’s the worst at those out of the three of them. Sakura feels more than a little nervous when he turns to her and eyes her like she’s a particularly interesting bug. “With me,” he says, turns into the woods, and maybe that makes Sakura a little more anxious.

She follows, though, and is relieved when they stop only a little ways into the tree line, just out of sight of the boys.

“I want you to meet someone,” Kakashi-sensei says, and suddenly there is someone standing next to him.

Sakura is particularly proud that she doesn’t flinch, but it’s still unnerving to see a man in almost-full Anbu gear drop out of the treetops. The man isn’t wearing his mask but he’s fully geared otherwise, and after years of seeing the silent sentinels it’s freaky to have the man speak.

“Sakura-san?” he says, and his voice is kind so that counts for something. “My name is Tenzou. Kakashi-senpai said you made a target log move?”

-

“Kakashi-senpai,” Tenzou-san says when he’s instructed Sakura to grow a tree and he thinks that Sakura isn’t listening, “you need to tell the Hokage.”

“Hm? You think I haven’t already?”

“I know you, senpai. But,” she keeps focused on the tree when he glances over, pretends she isn’t listening, “she naturally has it. I couldn’t do the things she’s able to do without training even after a couple of years.”

“So,” Kakashi leans against the tree he’s been standing in front of, and Sakura nearly jumps when she feels that through the tree roots, tangentially connected, “she’s going to be powerful.”

“ _ Very _ ,” Tenzou-san stresses the word, and he sounds a mix of worried and awed when he says, “you could have the second coming of the First Hokage on your hands.”

There’s silence for a few seconds, and Kakashi stands straight again. “I need to talk to the Hokage.”

Sakura can feel his every step out of the training ground, from the pressure on the roots of the trees. When she opens her eyes again, Tenzou-san is next to her, and he has a scroll in his hands.

-

She stays up late that night, alternately staring at the scroll on top of her dresser and worrying until it’s too damn late to do either and her mom flicks her lights off. That gives her some resolve, and Sakura digs out a flashlight, opens the scroll under the covers of her bed. In fact, it isn’t so much late as literally all night; the sun is rising when she emerges from her bed.

It’s somewhat of a blessing that first her parents, then her teammates, and also Kakashi-sensei are not up when she eats and heads out into their usual training ground. Most of the scroll is written in an elegant hand, the ink somewhat faded with age. But there are notes added in small, neat hand, beginner jutsu detailed out with chakra refinement tips.

Once she’s alone, in the forest with nothing but birds and the small critters in the undergrowth, she experiments.

-

Days take a pattern; she always gets to the training field, goes through the scroll and trains her mokuton jutsu until Naruto and Sasuke appear, wait for Kakashi with them, and train normally for the day. The only missions they take are what Naruto calls “baby missions” but Iruka’s steely stare prevents Naruto from complaining his way into harder missions whenever they’re at the desk.

She doesn’t see Tenzou-san as often as she used to, but she spends a lot of time under his clearance in the Hokage’s library, reading up on the First Hokage and the Senju before him who had mokuton. There’s not much, given that it’s been fifty or so years since Senju Hashirama died.

The problem is, she doesn’t know how the hell she has it.

Mokuton, as Tenzou had explained to her, was and is one of the rarest kekkai genkai. He had been rather forthcoming about his own past, at least the part of his cells being genetically identical to the First Hokage. That explains  _ him _ , but Sakura went to the hospital with a sample of his DNA (consensually obtained, she’s polite,  _ thank  _ you) and they tested her against it; no match.

The next logical conclusion is that she’s directly related to the Senju. Much less of a bust; according to records, her grandfather on her mother’s side was a Senju. By his time the Senju had dwindled to distant relations and the few core family remembers that had remained, Tsunade and her younger brother, had no children. The only reason Sakura knows he was Senju is because her mother tells her; he had taken his wife’s name when they had married.

Sakura wants to know how that works, the genetics involved, but there’s only so many tests the hospital can do.  _ One day _ , Sakura thinks, a little deliriously,  _ I’ll be able to ask Tsunade. _

-

The mission to the Land of Waves is a disaster.

Well, maybe disaster is a strong word. Naruto and Sasuke, at least, are a disaster, and it’s really telling when Kakashi-sensei has her stick to Tazuna like glue while he’s at the bridge. Then again, she hasn’t seen Naruto and Sasuke since successfully running up a tree. Three times. Kakashi wanted to be sure she wasn’t tricking him with mokuton.

The point is, they’re not helping her and Kakashi is still recovering. While a small part of her realizes that Kakashi really had no choice in sending her out, she still really wants to lord it over the boys when they stagger in for dinner. But then they end up making themselves sick and maybe she just doesn’t want to be around them.

Tsunami finds her after Naruto has run off and the rest of them have separated, Kakashi to check his leg, Sasuke to sleep, and Tazuna to check on Inari.

“Will that boy—Naruto? Will he be okay?” she asks, wiping down the table they had eaten at. 

Sakura returns the chairs to their former positions while she thinks. Naruto is very determined but also very stupid at the worst of times. “He’ll be fine,” she settles on, because it is very likely to be true.

-

Three days later, Naruto  _ is  _ fine.

Especially considering the bar for “fine” has been considerably lowered since Sasuke became a pincushion and Kakashi got a little sliced and diced by Zabuza. Sakura knows she can do something—all those hours practicing in the early mornings has given her at least some practice—but Kakashi says she’s supposed protect Tazuna.

Protecting Tazuna isn’t happening if Zabuza slices through Kakashi so she. Helps. A little. Okay, maybe with the rope-like tree roots blossoming from the bridge to catch him it’s more than a  _ little _ , but they all make it out, Gato’s dead, and so are Zabuza and Haku.

Sasuke, on the other hand, is alive,  _ thankfully _ , and Sakura has received a dressing down for the ages thanks to Kakashi.

Yes, she wasn’t supposed to use mokuton in the field yet for several reasons but she also really doesn’t want any of her teammates or her teacher to die on their first mission out of the Land of Fire. It doesn’t really surprise her when he agrees.

-

Kakashi notifies them, only days after coming back from their mission in the Land of Waves, that the Chuunin Exam is coming, and that he submitted their names for it. Sakura is not ready for the Chuunin Exam. For multiple reasons, but most of those reasons boil down to the central fact that she is the sole natural practitioner of mokuton in over fifty years and the Hokage has kept that fact under wraps.

She doesn’t know how she’s going to make it. Hell, she doesn’t even know if she’s  _ going _ to take it, because Kakashi actually did something right for once and gave them each a choice.

Admittedly, she’s pretty sure that there’s drawbacks to choosing not to, because Kakashi is nothing if not suspicious in literally everything he does but.

Whatever, she’s going to take the Chuunin Exam.

-

Okay, the first part? Easy. She eats critical thinking and paper tests like they’re rice and she’s starving. But first of all Ibiki is pretty terrifying, and then Anko’s arrival and mannerisms are downright unnerving.

When the second part of the Chuunin Exam actually comes, though, and they’re let into the woods— _ woods _ —Sakura nearly laughs with relief. Forests are home, and she’s managed to widen her radius of awareness to a full kilometer; she’ll know if anyone approaches while they’re in the trees.

Of course that doesn’t discount attacks from the air, or really speedy people able to outrun them, or—

Okay, the point is she’s feeling at least a little confident but that confidence is also followed by a hell of a lot of fear. She tags Naruto and Sasuke with  _ Sōshinki _ , stuck to their clothing, and stays behind them as they enter the forest. Reviewing what Tenzou has taught her is a good way to calm down, and she’s in the middle of reviewing cloning techniques when Naruto announces, with panache, that he needs to take a piss. Of  _ course _ .

Sakura immediately knows that it’s not him coming back through the bushes, lets Sasuke deal with the imposter while she heads to where Naruto is trussed up, cuts him free. The Amegakure shinobi is fleeing with a bloody arm when they reach Sasuke, and there’s a lull that allows them to regroup.

Sasuke is panting from exerted effort and Sakura isn’t sure; she isn’t sure if either of them have noticed the person hiding underground when Sasuke starts talking about a secret password. Maybe that’s why he’s talking about it, and so openly, but she can’t be sure. She listens, quietly files away the poem in her memory. It seems sort of long, and she’s considering that Naruto probably won’t remember it when air blasts around them, sending her into cover under some bushes. She can sense Naruto and Sasuke, two little blips of her own chakra tagged to them, and the other shinobi that, she assumes, attacked them.

Naruto isn’t moving; the other shinobi is. When Naruto emerges from the bushes with a, “Yow! You guys all right?” it is not Sasuke who sends a kunai at the imposter.

-

“Naruto’s back there,” Sakura points past them, deeper into the woods past the Kusa shinobi. She feels numb; first combat she’ll be participating in, after the Wave.

“What gave me away?” the other shinobi asks, slowly lifting his hat off.

“You were touching the tree roots down there,” Sakura says, feels almost sick when the other shinobi eyes her with heightened interest. No way she’s telling him about her mokuton.

“Ah,” he says, tossing the hat aside, “this is going to be much more fun than I thought.”

Sasuke takes a defensive stance, and Sakura tries to do the same. She doesn’t want to be the one holding them back, especially when the man they are facing is a very real threat. He cements that feeling in her when he withdraws a scroll, the dark brown bands marking it as an earth scroll before Sakura can even read what’s written on it.

“I suppose you’d like our earth scroll, wouldn’t you?” the man says, mouth widening, tongue elongating, “Since you already have a heaven scroll.” His tongue wraps around the scroll when he holds it up, pushes it into his mouth. Sakura shakes as the scroll is fully engulfed, and disappears down his throat. No  _ normal _ person—

“Well, shall we see just who will be getting their scroll?” A hand, drags down his face, catching on his eyelid. The tongue flickers out again, and for the first time in her life Sakura is faced with pure killing intent.

Her stomach heaves as something—genjutsu maybe?—grips her, shows her images of herself and Sasuke killed, brutally. She gags but she does not vomit, instead she is paralyzed while Sasuke throws up, wheezes, “Sakura…!”

Sakura cannot move, though, and it is only when Sasuke grabs her and gets them away from the kunai the other shinobi threw does she snap back to her senses. He has a wild, fear-driven look in his eyes, so she doesn’t even try to talk to him, she just tries to get a focus on finding their enemy.

“Sasuke!” she says, trying to keep quiet once she’s located the man but almost unable to because she is panicking. He slaps a hand over her mouth, and she’s torn between biting him and physically pulling his hand off her when the snake appears.

She takes the third option, namely sending a spike of wood up from the branch they’re sitting on through the snake’s skull. That kicks Sasuke into action, and they split in opposite directions.

The man emerges from the snake, looking perfectly fine, and his eyes flick from Sasuke to Sakura, thinly veiled interest as he says, “Ah, staying on your toes, as good prey should! You are making this chase very rewarding.”

-

Naruto has to mess everything up, but it’s not really messing up when sort of helps them? Sakura can’t really figure it out at this point, she’s exhausted and she’s been using the trees to transport the three of them somewhere safe while also trying to stay alert. One of the first defensive uses of mokuton that she learned was to build shelters, hardened ones that could easily be taken as tree roots by enemies, and that is what she intends to do when they are safe.

She waits until they’ve made it at least a kilometer away from where they had been attacked before setting up a  _ Mokujōheki _ , up against a larger tree that has naturally large roots. It’s easier to defend than if she was in the open, and it means that she might be able to get at least a little sleep.

But before she can sleep she needs to set up traps.

Her sort of traps are easy, though they require chakra. Wooden clackers, made from twigs on branches, would alert her to movement through the trees. Raising the peripheral roots of the trees would alert her to ground movement, as would the rustling of bushes.

Sakura doesn’t allow herself to cry; she needs to focus. If not for herself, for Naruto and Sasuke.

-

They get their earth scroll from Ino’s team after winning the heaven scroll from the Oto nin, but it doesn’t feel like a cop-out. In fact, Sakura is glad for it. She wants to leave the damn forest and never return to it, she wants to take a two day long bath, and she wants, most importantly, to get all the fucking hair that has lodged in her clothes out of her clothes. Oh, and getting an explanation for what happened to Sasuke would be nice, but Kakashi doesn’t look in a sharing mood.

She stands on the mezzanine with knots growing in her stomach until the board hits her name, and she tries to breathe before heading down to face Ino. 

-

It’s nearly a relief when she doesn’t pass onto the third stage. Yes, part of her wishes she had enough chakra to beat Ino, but when she looks at the genin who pass the preliminaries she is thankful. Sasuke, Neji, hell, even Naruto are not people that she wants to fight. Even thinking about the red-haired shinobi from Suna makes her shudder, especially considering what he did to Lee.

Gods,  _ Lee _ . His room in the hospital is the first she visits, because no matter how she feels about Sasuke she feels absolutely horrible for how she treated Lee. Even if she can’t be what he wants her to be, she can be his friend. She is  _ glad _ to be his friend.

The time between the preliminaries and the finals feels too long, even if it’s only a month. Perhaps part of it is that she has nothing to do, no Kakashi to incentivize her, no Sasuke and Naruto to train with. Sakura spends three days between home and hospital, doing nothing other than visiting Lee, before the cabin fever gets to her and she is overwhelmed by a need to do  _ something _ .

Practice field two is empty, blessedly empty. She brings the scroll but she doesn’t really need it, not since she has the contents memorized and filed away in her mind. First, meditation. It isn’t necessary but, well, it’s a habit from training under Tenzou. Clears her mind, helps with chakra control. After that, stretches and taijutsu, forms she has memorized. She feels balanced as she goes over hand seals, only checking the scroll once.

She isn’t expecting it when Tenzou finds her. After all, he is Anbu, and the exam means that the Anbu has their hands full policing not only Konoha’s citizens, but all the visiting ones as well.

“Tenzou-san,” she calls, because he’s doing a pretty impressive job of trying to hide in a tree twenty meters to the north of her, “what are you doing?”

“You’ve gotten better, Sakura-san,” he says, sliding out of the wood and walking over to her and the fairly impressive (in at least her mind) two story house she’s made. “I was heading to the Tower but I figured I could stop by and see you. How are you doing?”

“Fine,” she says, though that isn’t particularly accurate. “Uh, Tenzou-san?”

“Yes, Sakura-san?” he looks weirdly proud when she meets his eyes, and she blushes and drops her gaze.

“Is this all that we have on Hashirama-sama’s techniques?” she asks, holds the scroll up. It’s a little more worn than it had been when she had received it, but not so bad that he doesn’t recognize it.

“Ah, yes,” he hesitates, sits down next to where she is sitting, and pulls a pad of paper and a brush out of his weapons pouch. “There are some, in the Hokage’s library, but the Chuunin up there will let you in with this note,” he says, scribbling something on the paper before tearing it off the pad and handing it to her.

“Thank you, Tenzou-san,” she says, grinning at him when he lets out a put-upon sigh and ruffles her newly-shortened hair.

“Take care of yourself, Sakura-san, and don’t exhaust yourself,” he says in the lecture-tone that reminds her of Iruka-sensei. “And,” he adds, before he heads off to the Tower, “you can call me senpai.”

“Then stop calling me Sakura-san!” she yells after him.

-

The third and final part of the exam is treated like a party or celebration by some, but Sakura has felt uneasy since the Forest of Death and just wants it to be over. She gladly goes to the arena with Ino, they’re friends again and have agreed to stop letting romance get between that. Plus, Ino needs help with her hair like, constantly.

She is not the only one disappointed when Sasuke doesn’t show, but she is obviously of a very small minority who is worried. Added to that, Kakashi is nowhere to be found, and she can’t talk to Naruto because he’s still in the running after his fight.

(it is worth noting, she thinks, that she knew Naruto would win; he has a tendency to beat the crap out of anyone who thinks him trash or weak and then subsequently befriend them, it’s a pattern she’s noticed)

It’s stupid to worry, though, Sakura knows. Kakashi has to be with Sasuke, and it turns out that he was. Should’ve expected them to be late, considering. She can almost hear the groaning coming from the Hokage’s stands when Kakashi and Sasuke finally do appear, of course with with flair. Sakura sort of wants to punch Kakashi but she’ll settle for sending him a look while the match gets started.

-

Turns out, Sakura had been worrying for a good reason. She releases the genjutsu on herself when it is cast, and stays out of the way while Kakashi outlines the mission he needs her to take. The worry continues to tag along with her, even as she releases the genjutsu from Naruto and follows him and Shikamaru out of the hole in the arena after Pakkun. Nothing about the Chuunin Exam has been good, in her opinion.

Catching up to Sasuke is easier said than done. It’s distressing to lose Shikamaru but they are fighting a battle that cannot afford to be lost, so she follows Pakkun. They stop in the trees a ways back from where the Suna shinobi are facing Sasuke, and Sakura is trying to think of tactics or something that will help them before Naruto barges into the fight and one of the Suna nin, the shinobi that Shikamaru fought, is knocked unconscious.

Sasuke is trying to do too much and Sakura can see that, so, instead of back up Naruto she heads over to him. A shinobi who can’t fight is a liability, and the seal that is on his neck is preventing him from fighting. But at the same time everything is moving too fast, and Sakura’s trying to keep a handle on it but before she can make it to Sasuke, before the  _ Chidori _ he’s using can connect, a massive hand made out of sand slams him into a tree, knocking him unconscious and nearly sending the tree over.

“Sasuke-kun!” Sakura screams, and the sand-arm breaks off so it leaves him there, turns to her instead. She can’t do anything, mokuton or otherwise, if she can’t pause for a few moments, and it’s only when the sand-creature that the red-haired Suna shinobi is engulfed in heaves and bubbles larger that she gets a break.

It’s not much of a break, not when Sasuke is in danger and Naruto doesn’t seem to be able to do anything with his  _ bunshin. _ It is, though, enough of a break for her to start in on a series of hand seals that she thought she would never need to use.

The sand turns into one solid form, a massive oversized raccoon. It is so large that she cannot see the red-haired boy. She finishes her hand seals with a clap into  _ mi _ , and the woods rumble and heave, and Sakura is pushed up atop the very large wooden person she’s manifesting. She doesn’t focus on the unimportant things, like how it doesn’t have legs or more than the head of the serpent-like dragon supposed to be wrapped around it. Instead her eyes narrow on the massive sand-raccoon oozing through the woods, trying to find the Suna shinobi.

Naruto is doing something,  _ apparently _ , but while he’s doing that the raccoon-thing is gearing up and looking to head toward Naruto, who is still on the ground. Sakura isn’t the best at tactics in the middle of combat but she knows when she can do something, and do something she does. The technique is  _ Mokujin no jutsu _ , and it moves as she wants it to, places the raccoon in a choke hold.

Sand makes it tricky, though, and with some concentration she gets a couple more arms to appear. She can contain the sand, but she can’t do much else, and her chakra is getting low when she bellows, “NARUTO!”

“Ah! Sakura-chan, thanks!” Naruto yells back, running up the curve of the  _ Mokujin no jutsu’ _ s back to leap onto the raccoon’s head. 

Sakura’s nearly blacking out from chakra loss when she drops to her knees, hands still clasped together, and it’s only when the sand begins to dissolve that she pulls her hands apart and lets her eyes close.

-

The hospital is very different when considered from a bed in it. Sakura’s head feels like it’s cracking in half when she wakes up, and the light from the overheads and the windows is too much. She groans when she slits her eyes open, gingerly looking around her.

“Sakura?” the voice is familiar, and she doesn’t know why but she starts sobbing when she hears it.

“Mom,” she chokes out, and through her barely opened, tear-blurred eyes she can see her mom before she’s gathered up in a hug. Haruno Mebuki is not the one Sakura got her emotionality from, but her eyes are red and her voice is raspy.

“You’re okay, you’re fine,” Mebuki says, running a hand through Sakura’s hair, rubbing her back.

It takes some time for her to regain composure, to remember why she is in the hospital. “What happened?” she asks her mom when she’s had some water and wiped her face.

Mebuki sits on the bed next to her, “You helped save us all, my blossom. If you and Naruto had not succeeded, none of us would be here.”

“Is Naruto…?” the anxiety kicks up in her chest, tightens in her throat. 

“Everyone is fine,” Mebuki says, then looks pained, “Not everyone, but all of your teammates and classmates. Sakura, blossom, the Hokage—”

“He’s dead,” Sakura says faintly, but with complete certainty.

-

Naruto visits her after her mother leaves that same day, the only full day she has to spend at the hospital. He looks sheepish and has a sort of crushed handful of daffodils in one hand that Sakura puts in her water cup.

They sit in silence for a while, which with Naruto in the room is nothing short of a miracle. Several times Sakura looks at him and he seems as if he is going to say something but he doesn’t, not until he’s been sitting for at least ten minutes.

“Thank you,” he finally does say and when Sakura looks away from the window to him under the bandages on his cheeks he’s flushed.

“For what?” Sakura asks.

“For helping me, with, with Gaara,” Naruto says, and the dam keeping in his rambling breaks, “he’s not that bad, really, everyone just treats him like he’s a monster because he’s a jinchuuriki—that’s the word Jiraiya used but I already knew that because I’m one too—but he’s going back to Suna and they’re working this out, his brother said they’re going to change everything, and, oh! Ero-sennin is taking me somewhere! He wouldn’t say where but it’s important I guess!”

Later, when Naruto is gone and Kakashi (weirdly enough) has stopped by, she asks him where Naruto is going. Kakashi raises an eyebrow, and says in a somewhat disbelieving voice, “To find our new Hokage.”

-

Senju Tsunade is an imposing woman. Sakura has heard about her—everyone learns of the Sannin at the Academy—but learning is nothing compared to meeting.

For one? Tsunade is  _ short _ . It’s not like Sakura’s tall or anything but she’s still growing and height runs tall in her father’s family anyway, but she doesn’t expect for Konoha’s new Hokage to be of a height with her. Or to be impressively testy with everyone she encounters, but beggars can’t be choosers. Which, apparently, is what Konoha is at that point.

But. Imposing. Despite the height and the weirdly disarming nature of her sweet looking face, Tsunade is imposing, especially when she is looming over you with her arms crossed over her chest.

Sakura is assuming she either is needed for something, or she did something horribly wrong because  _ she  _ is the one in that situation, currently.

“Hatake’s student, you said?” she asks of her second in command, the woman named Shizune.

Shizune looks very tired and also somewhat confused when she replies, “Yes, Tsunade-sama. Why did you want to speak to her?”

But Tsunade ignores the question, turns her attention fully on Sakura. It is rather like being stared at by a hungry tiger, not that Sakura knows what that is like. “I had very little contact with Konoha after my departure years ago. However, a few months ago I began hearing rumors of a genin with the same skills as my own grandfather,” Tsunade says. Her eyes narrow almost imperceptibly, and Sakura flinches. “Jiraiya confirmed the rumors. Said he’d met a girl with hair the color of cherry blossoms who formed a nearly complete  _ Mokujin no jutsu _ . That must be you. Name?”

“Haruno Sakura,” Sakura finally manages to say. Her mouth feels rather like sandpaper.

“Well, Haruno Sakura,” Tsunade says, hands on her hips, “how do you feel about learning medical ninjutsu?”

-

Uchiha Sasuke has done, Sakura knows, quite a lot of rude things to her. But that doesn’t dismiss the fact that they are  _ teammates _ and teammates are supposed to trust each other with their lives.

Uchiha Sasuke, Sakura has found, does not trust her. He does not trust Naruto. And, really, when she’s trying to talk him into staying she knows that there’s no chance. There’s something in his eyes that is dark and set, perhaps showing that his mind is already made up.

_ Stupid _ , Sakura thinks when she’s woken up by the two Chuunin dragging Tsunade’s papers all over Konoha.

_ Stupid _ , she thinks when Tsunade herself is checking her over at the hospital, asking questions that are met with monotone but detailed replies.

She ends up on the training field—their training field. Tsunade has dismissed her from training until Naruto gets back, her parents are on a mission, as is Kakashi and Tenzou and while what Sakura really wants is to talk to someone, she cannot imagine talking to any of her peers, or to Tsunade or anyone else about this.

So she cocoons herself in a wooden shell, lets everything out. Screams, sobs.

What she finds, when she leaves her shell, leaves the training field, is that she is no longer sad. No, she is furious. And she is more than ready to train and hone herself so that one day, she will be able to show Sasuke  _ just  _ how furious.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> At age 14, Haruno Sakura realizes that maybe she's in love with her best friend.

Naruto leaving hurts more than everything that has happened with Sasuke, and that in itself is something of a relief. She’s done being hurt by Sasuke, there’s so much more happening in her life that is _good_ and she wants to be able to focus on that.

Training takes up most of her time; with Tsunade as her task master, there is little time for anything else. Once she has the basic skills necessary to be a medic she’s thrown into shadowing rotations at the hospital, and after only a few months of shadowing she receives full shifts of her own. Outside of medical training Tsunade has her training in her other areas, strength and tactics and endurance. By the time the Chuunin Exam rolls around again she is not just prepared; she is looking forward to it. Something of a miracle, that.

The Chuunin Exam the second time around is nowhere near as painful as the first. In fact, other than having to deal with Choji during their trip to Sunagakure, it’s sort of fun.

And, in a delightful turn, it allows them to stay in Suna for a week and a half, given that the Exam is cancelled and Tsunade hasn’t called them back. Other than the mission to Wave Sakura has never been out of the Land of Fire, and the opportunity to freely explore Suna is not one that she wants to pass up. The village, which seems small at first look upon arriving through the main entrance, the split between the stone walls to the south, is actually massive. And the bowl that the entire city lies in is literally carved _out_ of the mountain.

It’s an experience to get used to all the stairs, and Ino and Sakura have to save Choji from nearly breaking his neck three times their first day there. The stairs get easier to handle, but that doesn’t stop them from getting lost nearly every time they have to go somewhere; the city seems like a massive mishmash of bazaars, thin alleys that sometimes lead nowhere at all, and and a whole myriad of other things that make navigation nigh impossible. As helpful as the inhabitants are Sakura knows it would take months to get used to Suna.

-

A couple days into their first week there they (along with Team 8, and Gai’s team once Tenten can convince Lee to stop training for a few minutes) find themselves on a guided tour courtesy of Temari, who, other than the aloofness and understandable worry for her brothers, is really quite nice. And since she was the daughter of the previous Kazekage, Temari knows all of the hidden places where the general citizenry don’t frequent.

They’ve lost around half of the group by the time they enter a shallow staircase heading straight into the rock of the mountain. Tenten and Lee went off to admire some weapons at a shop, Kiba and Hinata were dealing with Akamaru, who almost had heat stroke, and Ino had found a flower shop that specialized in plants grown in and around the desert. Sakura sort of wants to head back to her room, but Temari has been asking her questions about Tsunade and being a medic-nin and Sakura doesn’t want to leave her hanging since she’s been kind enough to show them around.

“I’ve been wondering,” Neji says while they’re on the staircase, the first time he’s spoken all afternoon, “where does the city get its water?”

“Well, the city itself is an oasis,” Temari says, gestures in front of her, down the staircase. Her voice echoes weirdly when she continues, “It was and is built into the mountain. Once the primary springs dried up, they dug down and found a whole system of underground lakes. That’s where we get the water—wells are connected to down here.” Again, a gesture, but this time it has more meaning.

The staircase opens up to a massive cavern, lit with bronze lanterns on long chains. There are people around, mostly in the clear water of the lake in front of them.

“This one and a few others are safe to swim in,” Temari says. She stops a few steps away from smooth rock that drops stright into the water, hands on her hips. Something like pride is on her face and in her voice when she speaks again, “Reto-sama, the first Kazekage, was the one to invent the way the water is purified. It is done nightly.”

Sakura knows enough about running a hidden village to know that that is no small feat. She grills Temari about it with such intensity that the other girl is near-laughing as they walk back to the surface.

It’s late in the afternoon, a cool breeze picking up when they emerge. Temari offers to take them out to dinner but Choji leaves to find Ino, Hinata to find somewhere quiet, and Neji to find Lee and Tenten (probably, in his case, for the best). Sakura takes her up on it. She has found, through the course of the afternoon, that she enjoys Temari’s company a lot.

-

The dorms are alight when Sakura returns from eating, full of _very_ spicy, but nonetheless delicious food. They had talked a lot, about a range of topics but largely about Temari’s impending assignment as Sunagakure’s diplomat to Konohagakure. Heavy discussion, and Sakura is slightly thankful to once again be in the company of her friends, where she won’t have to talk.

It soon becomes very apparent that she will have to, though, because Ino is freaking out about something and Choji, as soon as he sees Sakura, flees out of a window.

“Choji!” Ino half-shrieks, half-whines when he disappears, doesn’t even notice that Sakura has appeared until Sakura grabs one of her wrists and drags her out the door. “What? What is going on? Where are we going?”

“Ino,” Sakura says, with as much patience as she can muster, “I don’t know what just happened, but if your shrieking was any indication you need to relax.”

“Uh,” Ino stops trying to drag herself away from Sakura, “but, where?”

“That’s a surprise,” Sakura sing-songs.

-

The underground lake is empty when they make it down all of the stairs, bronze lamps sending star-shaped patterns of light over the walls. “Temari showed us this earlier,” Sakura says, sliding off one sandal, then the other. “This one’s safe to swim in.”

“I didn’t bring a swimming suit,” Ino says, looking at Sakura with something unreadable on her face.

“Neither did I.” Sakura shrugs, pulls her shirt off. Ino goes very quiet, but Sakura ignores her, strips down to naked and cannon-balls into the water.

 _That_ earns a shriek, and all of Ino’s reluctance disappears as she throws her own clothes off and plunges into the water after Sakura.

Time flies by as they engage in a battle of splashes, and Sakura is actually feeling worn out by the time that she admits defeat to Ino. Let it be said that despite Sakura having more chakra and endurance than her best friend, she is nowhere near as stubborn.

“What is this place?” Ino asks, pulling her somewhat-mangled hair out of the ponytail. It floats around her in the water in an almost mesmerizing way, and Sakura finds her face reddening when she manages to reply. Pointedly looking away from Ino, of course.

“There’s a bunch of underground lakes under Suna, Temari says they use them for water,” she babbles, quieting as she looks back at Ino and sees the look on her face. There’s something like awe in her eyes as she looks around them, at the stone and the bronze.

“Guess we really didn’t know that much about Sunagakure,” Ino says, her voice quiet. She swims out toward the middle of the lake, humming to herself.

Sakura sticks close to the shore, finds herself staring at Ino as the other glides through the water. As much as she doesn’t want to stare at her best friend, who is swimming naked. _Fuck_. She decides that the exhaustion of all the walking and the water fight is catching up to her, steps out of the water to pull her clothes back on.

Ino stays out in the water for another ten minutes or so before she notices Sakura, fully clothed, and begins to swim back to the shore and her pile of clothes.

“Help me out, Forehead,” Ino says when she reaches the smooth rocks.

Sakura obliges, and they only realize their error when Ino’s halfway out of the water and, you know, _naked_. It’s a miracle Sakura doesn’t drop her back in.

Both of them are red-faced on the walk back to their dorm, and it’s only after Sakura stops to buy them cups of saffron milk that Temari had said is a Suna specialty that the ice breaks.

“That was fun,” Ino says, and Sakura is fairly sure she isn’t hallucinating the shyness in Ino’s voice.

“Maybe we should do it again sometime,” Sakura replies, knowing full well that she is blushing, and Ino is blushing as well.

-

It is somewhat of a surprise that all of them achieve Chuunin. Well, not really for Sakura; she’s had a first-row seat to all of the paperwork jams that have resulted from the shortage of manpower since the previous Hokage died.

Part of the problem is the fact that Danzou is off doing his own thing, and the fifty or so shinobi that Tsunade estimates are under his command are not part of the larger Anbu force. “It’s a balance,” she says after a particularly long day that has earned some sake, “and that balance is not achieved right now. Too many different people hold power; the Hokage, the Council, Danzou. If we could only _consolidate_ it.”

No amount of planning helps the balance, though, not until the new Chuunin are added to the ranks. Within a week of their return from Sunagakure, seven of Sakura’s year-mates are out in the field on missions. She’s benched, by Tsunade’s own judgement, working more hours than ever at the hospital. But Sakura can deal with that. She’s a medic-nin, first and foremost. She knows where she's needed.

-

Sakura has spent a full year under Tsunade’s tutelage on the day that she reports to the Hokage Tower only to be told that her duties at the hospital and Tower have been suspended. There’s no normal explanation for it, and Shizune lets Sakura into Tsunade’s office with an unreadable expression on her face.

“Tsunade-sama? Akane-san said that I’m suspended from working,” Sakura says, once she’s closed the door behind her and turned to her teacher.

Tsunade’s expression is more a mix of concern and something like disgust than unreadable, and she sighs, leans back, and flips her chair around so she’s looking out of the wide windows in one swift movement. “This is entirely up to you, Sakura,” she says after a few moments, and Sakura can see in the window’s reflection that Tsunade is frowning, slightly.

“What, shishou?” Sakura asks. The only other time that Tsunade was this serious was when she asked Sakura if she wished to learn how to summon Katsuyu, her family’s summon.

“When I taught you to summon and allowed you to contract with the slugs I explained my family’s history to you as it connected to them,” Tsunade says, turns so she’s in profile to Sakura.

“Uh, yes, that the Senju family has long been connected to the slugs living in the Shikkotsu Forest,” Sakura says, doesn’t even need to try and remember because it stuck with her so clearly, “Your ancestors formed a contract with them after saving the woods they live in from destruction; your grandfather was trained in senjutsu by them and they, uh. They chose me to be added to their contract of their own volition, despite the fact that I am only a very distant relation to the Senju.”

Tsunade nods, once. “Katsuyu contacted me on behalf of another inhabitant of Shikkotsu Forest, Chīsai. She is the last of the slug sages, other than Katsuyu, and she wishes to meet you.”

Sakura doesn’t even realize her mouth has been hanging open until she speaks. “Uh, when, shishou?”

“Well,” Tsunade looks at her a little ruefully, “you have ten minutes to pack a bag.”

-

Shikkotsu Forest is not exactly as Sakura imagines. Well, given the name she doesn’t really know what to expect in the first place. Bones? Wetlands?

Whatever the case, it’s sort of a shock to come out of the reverse-summon in the middle of a clearing surrounded by trees big enough to dwarf those in the woods surrounding Konoha. The grass is nearly as tall as her, which is a considerable height since she has been shooting up like a weed for months. The tiny Katsuyu that summoned her is waiting outside of the perfectly circular rock she appeared on, and once Sakura double checks that she hasn’t lost anything, she follows the slug out of the clearing.

They pass under the roots of one of the trees, down a wide, shallow staircase made of the roots, and the chamber that they enter must be a hollowed out tree, because it is _massive_ , and Sakura suddenly feels very small. Added to the feeling of smallness is the feeling of being overwhelmed. The walls and floor are carpeted with intricately woven rugs and fabrics, paths between them so Katsuyu can get around, and atop the rugs and carpets are tables large and small, some holding books and scrolls, others bowls and vases full of flowers. Strings and yarn and ropes of beads criss-cross the hollow above where they walk, like some strange spider’s web, and Sakura nearly walks into a table because she’s so mesmerized.

They make it to a curtain-draped doorway without any further trouble, and Sakura ducks under the cloth after Katsuyu.

“Sakura-san,” says the slug, once they are inside and her eyes are adjusting to the dimmer light, “This is Senju Chīsai-sama.”

-

Chīsai, contrary to what Sakura had been thinking, is not a slug. No, Chīsai is a very, _very_ old woman who looks almost as if she is made out of wood herself, all dark brown, wrinkly skin and amber-colored eyes. She cannot speak, in the usual sense, and instead communicates with Katsuyu via a signed language while Sakura stands in front of her.

Despite her age, the signs are made rapidly enough that Sakura can’t follow along, though she really couldn’t anyway. When her hands stop moving the small part of Katsuyu that had been escorting Sakura makes a wiggling nod movement, turns to Sakura.

“Sakura-san, I will take you to where you will be staying,” the slug says, already moving rapidly away from the old woman, “And there I will explain why you are here, as well as all that Chīsai-sama wishes you to know.”

They leave the curtained-off room, but instead of trekking back through the massive hollow Katsuyu directs Sakura to pick her up and take another of the wide, shallow staircases, this one leading up to a room with several doorways branching off of it.

“This will be your home while you are here,” Katsuyu says, letting Sakura put her down on the cleared floor. She splits in four, each smaller slug heading toward one of the doorways. “Here is the bath,” says the first. “Your bedroom,” says the second. “There is a basic kitchen through here, I will show you where to find food,” says the third slug. The fourth slug says, finally, “There’s a balcony open to the forest through here.”

The slugs reform into one as Sakura puts her bags down, pokes into each of the mentioned rooms in turn. The bedroom is small, the bath as well— _that_ room has an old squat toilet and a surprisingly big bath; she’s not complaining—the kitchen is larger and has a low table with a couple of cushions stacked atop it.

“How long am I staying here for?” Sakura asks when she’s returned to the main room, which is mostly empty, other than a tiny table with some lanterns clustered on it and a falling-apart broom.

“You are to stay here for a month, unless you achieve what Chīsai-sama wishes you to before that,” the slug replies, oozing over to Sakura and saying a quiet “thank you” when the girl picks her up. “Chīsai-sama wished for you to visit because she had heard of you and recognized your potential.”

Part of Sakura wants to laugh, because _her_ ? _Potential_? She squashes that, though, when Katsuyu continues. “You are the first since Hashirama to manifest the full skills of a mokuton user naturally, and though you will never be on his level of power, for he was the most powerful shinobi to ever be born of the Senju, you must be taught as he was.

“And that means, Sakura-san, that we must start immediately.”

-

Sakura doesn’t flinch when the spine stabs her, she used enough to needle pricks that it isn’t a big deal. There’s a hot pressure for a moment, and then all that’s left is general soreness and a tingling sensation that spreads through her body while she settles into her usual meditation pose.

“This is only possible because of your seal,” Katsuyu cautions from her left, the smaller, venomously green slug atop her. “If you do not have the chakra required, you will be turned to stone.”

Sakura allows herself to smile at the slugs before focusing her attention back on nothing. Katsuyu had instructed her on natural energy, and the particular way that the Slug Sages of Shikkotsu Forest gained their powers; when poisoned by Furui, the green slug, those poisoned are particularly open to natural energy.

The feel of it is familiar, like working with wood. _Balance,_ she chants to herself, _balance, balance, balance_. The energy ebbs and flows, but once she has the feel of it she knows what to do, what to bring into herself and let mix with chakra.

-

A week and a day into training, Sakura politely refuses Furui’s assistance. Katsuyu looks at her with concern, or at least Sakura thinks she does, but assents, and sends Furui away. The place they’re at in the forest is isolated so much that Sakura feels deaf once Furui has moved out of hearing range.

“Focus, Sakura-san,” Katsuyu says after a few moments, taps her on the leg with one eye-stalk. Her tone is good-humored. “I think you can get it today.”

-

She gets it.

She _gets_ it.

The feelings—the oneness with nature that she had, amplified, the awareness of everything, her body thrums with strength—

She breathes. _Balance. Don’t get off-balance_. Opens her eyes, smiles at Katsuyu, who in her own way is beaming back. The slug nudges Sakura. “I told you,” she says, just a little smug.

-

After achieving Sage Mode for the first time everything just...falls into place. It’s as if there was some puzzle piece of Sakura’s life missing and it was finally pushed back into place. Sage Mode is a perfect complement to Mokuton; it gives her a complete connection to the wood, a complete awareness of everything that she does and can do.

She trains with it daily, for the rest of the month. Whatever goal that Chīsai-sama has for her seems to not matter after her first accomplishment. There’s so much for her to learn, anyway, that she doesn’t want to leave.

Taijutsu is completely different, ninjutsu is almost scarily more powerful, and her mokuton. Well. Her mokuton.

Katsuyu sits Sakura down a week after her first successful manifestation of Sage Mode, once she has dinner in hand.

“There are certain skills that you will be able to perform,” Katsuyu says, graciously accepting some cut-up mushrooms. “Only you. The art of the Sage, particularly that of Slug Sages, is very closely tied to the powers of mokuton.”

“Wha’s tha?” Sakura asks around a mouthful of stir-fry.

“Healing,” Katsuyu says. “In particular, latent healing.”

“Latent,” Sakura pauses, and the meaning of what Katsuyu has said hits her. “You mean…?”

“You can extend natural energy to others, and use it to heal them. Hashirama was able to use this skill in the heat of battle to heal himself, which is just one of its applications,” Katsuyu scoots closer to Sakura and pauses until Sakura gives her some more mushroom, “the energy can be used to heal others, as I said, and if overloaded on another, can turn deadly.”

“How do I…?” She doesn’t even need to finish the question.

“Well, you’ll start on that in the morning.”

-

The month is a success, in Sakura’s opinion. She learns Chīsai’s sign language, successfully masters Sage Mode for a couple minutes at a time, and gets halfway-decent at trying to heal from a distance. Trying is the key word to that.

But she has learned and grown, settled into herself more. Not to mention physically grown, most of her clothes are groaning at their seams.

So, going home is good. She’s sad to leave Katsuyu, Furui, and Chīsai behind but visits are always an option.

They reverse the summon at the same round rock that they appeared on, and Sakura isn’t ashamed of the fact that she’s crying just a little as they leave.

Tsunade’s behind her desk when they appear inside of the office, and when she sees who is in the middle of the smoke cloud she smiles, laugh lines crinkling.

“Ah, Sakura-chan, a productive month?” she asks, setting down a paper she had been reading.

“Very, Tsunade-shishou,” Sakura replies, turns to bow to Katsuyu before the slug returns to the forest.

“Well, you will have a few days to recover,” Tsunade says, shuffles her papers together and leans back in her chair. A smile plays across her lips. “Then, I think you will need to demonstrate what you have learned.”

Sakura bows to her teacher, smiling as well, “Of course, shishou.”

“Now,” Tsunade begins, but whatever that she was going to say after that is drowned out by the door slamming open and a shriek of “Sakura-chan!”. The blur of blonde hair is Sakura’s only warning before Ino nearly strangles her in a hug.

“Please tell me you’re back forever, I can’t stand working here with only Shizune,” Ino mutters into Sakura’s neck. _God_ , she’s taller than Ino.

“Back forever,” Sakura says, doesn’t even feel embarrassed by the blush across her cheeks.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> At age 16, Haruno Sakura makes the healthy decision to kick the shit out of Uchiha Sasuke the next time she sees him.

Nobody knows about it.

Okay, really, that’s wrong. Tenzou knows, because Sakura trusts Tenzou with her life as well as her secrets. Tsunade obviously knows, which means by extension Shizune knows. And Kakashi, well. Kakashi interrupts one of her training sessions and she nearly accidentally kills him, and that is how he learns that his (former) student has become a Slug Sage.

She’s actually healing a mass of splinters that are embedded in one of his hands when he figures the whole thing out.

“Maybe it’s a good thing you weren’t my student for very long,” he says, and Sakura knows him well enough to also know when he’s being self-depreciating. She rolls her eyes, smacks a bandage onto his hand and doesn’t feel bad for relishing the wince that earns.

“Sensei,” she says in return, tone no-nonsense, “you taught me a lot. You introduced me to Tenzou-senpai. You showed me that I could be great, despite my weaknesses.”

He sighs, drops his head and shakes it a little. “Well, then, since I apparently taught you all that,” he mutters after a few moments, looks up at her with the Kakashi-brand mischief in his eye, “you should probably show me what good it did, hm?”

-

She kicks his  _ ass _ .

-

Objectively, Sakura knows that two and a half years is not a long time (but, then again, speaking as a shinobi with a lower life expectancy it sort of was but she didn’t want to think about that), it felt like an eternity. Working at the hospital and the Tower was all well and good but.

Sakura is bored out of her fucking skull. Maybe she had gotten used to Naruto being loud all the time. Maybe she’d gotten used to taking missions and training everyday. What the hell, she has no idea, but given that she still trains every day it’s probably not that.

The lack of missions is severe, and almost to the point of concerning. Sakura has very little real combat experience which, given the state of affairs with the Land of Earth and the Land of Lightning, is  _ bad _ . Yeah, Tsunade’s doing her best with all of the hidden villages but Sakura would feel more secure with actual battle experience. It’s not like anyone can help her with that, either, because unless she can round up more than three of her year-mates she doesn’t get a challenge, Kakashi is always on missions, and even if Tenzou has free time they mostly just end up talking architecture with each other.

-

Architecture is Tenzou’s hobby but Sakura...well, Sakura finds that the more she learns, the more it fascinates her. Traditional ways of building, house and building styles, everything that Tenzou will tell her. Which is a  _ lot _ . Without even getting to the wall of scrolls and books he has on the subject, Tenzou has nearly two dozen little leather-bound journals that contain his own notes on the architecture of buildings he’s encountered.

Sometimes, when she has a late shift or no shift she spends a couple hours of her afternoons in his sparse, simple apartment, looking through his scrolls and books and journals. She makes little scale models of buildings for him, in thanks. Fanciful dream buildings, replicas of those she has seen in Sunagakure or her other limited travels, and caricatures of the buildings composing their own town. He hangs them at his windows, sets them in and around the bookshelves.

“I am glad to be your teacher, even if I was that for only a short while,” he tells her one evening when he’s taken her out to get dinner because, in his own words, she’s still-growing and she needs proper feeding. “You have grown so much, and I am glad to have seen it.”

He doesn’t complain when she cries into his shoulder, ruffles her hair in the exact same way of Kakashi.

A week after that she brings him a homemade cake, a fresh melon, and an exact scale model of her personal favorite building, the Sunagakure administration building. He looks a mix of surprised, confused, and absolutely delighted. When she bows and says, “Thank you, Tenzou-senpai! Without your help I would not have made it as far as I have, and I will forever be indebted to you for that, and for your friendship.”

Really, she shouldn’t be surprised that  _ that _ makes him cry, he’s wildly sentimental, but she pats his back and gives him a hair ruffle for good measure. It feels as though they have traveled full circle, in a way.

-

It’s actually a very lazy day for her, before Tsunade walks into the room where she’s checking over medical histories. She met Ino after her early shift and they trained before going out for barbeque, when she got back to the Tower Tsunade was in a delightfully good mood, and she’s done nothing but easy paperwork since then.

In fact, she’s re-filing the last of the folders when Tsunade pushes into the room, a broad smile on her face, and says, “Hey, Sakura, looks like that brat Naruto is back.”

Later, Tsunade tries to claim that Sakura’s excitement-induced shriek temporarily deafened her but frankly, Sakura doesn’t give a damn. Naruto! Is back! She’s waited nearly three goddamn years, so, yeah, she’s a little fucking excited. Tsunade can lay off, she’s just as happy to see Jiraiya again.

On the other hand, maybe some of that excitement is a little misplaced, what with Naruto still being the inappropriate goober he is. But still, once they’ve passed that particular hurdle, Kakashi doesn’t insist they re-do their first bell test, because he knows that Sakura can lay him out on her own pretty handily. Instead, because he does need to test how well they can work as a team for any future missions, it’s more of a free-for-all. 

-

Sakura kicks  _ both _ of their asses. Frankly, it’s a glorious moment, even if it’s because Naruto is underestimating her. Kakashi has a healthy amount of fear, thank fuck.

-

Their trip to Sunagakure reminds her of the Chuunin Exam, the long trek they’d had to do then. Despite how urgent that trip had been, their new trip is of greater urgency.

They make it to the mountain-carved city in almost record time after joining Temari on the road. It is partly her that urges them faster, for it is her brothers who have been wounded and kidnapped, but it is also Naruto.

Sakura knows about him being a jinchuuriki, has known for years. Given that they’re teammates, Tsunade did take some time to elaborate more on the bijuu for her benefit, and Tenzou--

Well, there are certain benefits to being a mokuton user, Sakura supposes. And one of those benefits is the ability to deal rather efficiently with jinchuuriki and the bijuu. She learned all of the techniques, but doesn’t have experience using them. Sakura isn’t completely confident that she would be able to deal with Naruto on her own, were he to manifest the Kyuubi and go out of control.

That is why Kakashi is there, she tells herself, and they’ll be fine. They’ll get Gaara back, they’ll be  _ fine _ .

-

They are...not fine. It’s bad enough that she has to pool all of her resources to analyze the poison that’s ravaging Kankuro’s body, but then they waste precious time waiting around for her to formulate and make an antidote. If Kakashi and Naruto had gone on ahead there would be a greater chance of finding Gaara; with the wind and unpredictable nature of the mostly sandy land around them every hour that goes by is an hour in favor of those who kidnapped Gaara.

She tries to keep Temari calm while she’s working, but it’s difficult to focus on keeping her sane while trying to keep herself sane. When Sakura finally,  _ finally _ , finishes the antidote and administers a dosage to Kankuro, there’s not even any real time for relief. She gets an hour to rest, takes a fucking nap before packing up her kit and heading out of the city, into the sand.

Despite Chiyo volunteering to go with them, their pace is demanding. Naruto is raring to go, keeping pace with them only because he knows he can’t get Gaara back from Akatsuki on his own. They work together, and Sakura really hopes that they’ll fare better than the Sunagakure shinobi have.

-

Sasori uses puppets. Great crowds of puppets. Great crowds of fucking  _ wooden _ puppets.

Chiyo looks worried,  _ is  _ worried, obviously. She knows Sakura barely at all and definitely doesn’t know about the whole mokuton thing, but she looks even more worried when Sakura starts laughing, edging on full-blown-hysterics. Even if the wood is lacquered or under metal it  _ doesn’t matter _ , it’s fucking wood and Sasori is goddamn doomed, okay?

He doesn’t seem to think that, which would be a little endearing if he hadn’t stabbed his grandmother the first chance he got. Sakura does manage to get an antidote to her, and a simplified explanation of her skills does wonders for Chiyo’s worry.

They actually work very well, her and the crotchety old woman. Sakura has enough brute force for both of them, and Chiyo has enough knowledge of Sasori and the puppets to come up with an on-the-fly plan.

The chakra strings lend Sakura some extra agility and allow Chiyo to get her in, close enough so that she can use mokuton to take control of the wood puppet that is, apparently, Sasori. Once she does she can see how it works, how  _ Sasori _ works. There are plugs in his chest, attachments like wires and swords tucked away inside of his body.

In theory there are several ways it can go. Shortest solution is brute force, but Sakura suspects that he has a backup plan for that, so instead it seems appropriate to slap her palms to his chest after some hand-signs, and let all of the lacquered wood there grow.

Sasori, in truth, doesn’t see what’s coming. 

-

The entire cavern is overgrown by trees by the time they leave. Sakura has used the second antidote on herself, after slicing one of her hands on the scaled metal rope in Sasori’s chest. Despite her having given the first one to Chiyo, the old woman is looking worse and worse, until Sakura finally has to assist her toward where they can feel Kyuubi’s chakra.

Well, where she can feel the Kyuubi’s chakra. On the plus, it fades the closer they get to it; Naruto seems to have gotten some semblance of control over himself.

Some being the important word; as they near the somewhat-destroyed parts of forest worry begins to pool in Sakura’s stomach. Their speed slows and slows and slows to nearly a crawl by the time they make it out to where Kakashi and Naruto are. And...Gaara.

_ God _ , Gaara. He’s too still in Naruto’s arms, and when Naruto sees them, kneels to place his body down, Sakura can see how red-rimmed her teammate’s eyes are. She wants to go to him but Chiyo asks her, voice almost gone, to take her to Gaara.

Sakura takes her to Gaara. Sakura suddenly understands why she is flagging so much.

-

The trip back is not as short as the trip there, but it feels just as condensed. There isn’t much talking, other than Gai occasionally spouting off to Kakashi in the manner that he does. They make it back relatively early in the morning, after getting up before dawn.

The first thing is to report to Tsunade, but with Gai absent to take Kakashi to the hospital, that leaves the five teens to report in their stead. Sakura does end up doing most of the talking on their side of it; Tenten does the same for her team. Tsunade dismisses them when they’re finished, tells Naruto and Sakura to check in a few hours later, once she’s assessed Kakashi.

As much as Sakura wants to get food with Naruto, they’re going to be seeing each other in a few hours and she’s really still slipping off the week-long adrenaline high that Suna put her in. Frankly, there is something more important that she knows she needs to do, and immediately.

So, to the Yamanaka flower shop she flickers. Appearing, with luck, right next to the counter where Ino is arranging an ikebana setting for Hyuuga Hiashi. Hiashi nearly hits her with Gentle Fist, and Ino is not so subtly snickering behind the counter, despite how the surprise fucked up her arrangement.

“Can I help you?” Ino finally asks when she has some semblance of control over herself, trying and failing to keep a professional tone.

“Yes,” Sakura says. She fists a hand in Ino’s somewhat dirty shirt and apron, leans over the counter and tugs her forward into a kiss in full view of everyone buying and selling flowers. Inoichi faints. Kurenai, who has a bouquet in her arms, claps, followed by three others. Someone makes an exaggerated “aww” noise. Hiashi turns a really interesting shade of puce, not that Sakura is trying to look at him.

Ino, who is sort of stunning in her ever-eloquent turn of phrase, is for once fully fucking speechless. Sakura doesn’t mind, it gives her the opportunity to say, somewhat thickly, “I just want you to know, in case I don’t come back from one of these stupid missions.”

By that point, Ino has regained some composure, drags Sakura over the countertop (fully ignoring Hiashi, who has progressed to sputtering) and back into the attached greenhouse.

So commences a ten-minute necking session the likes of which Sakura has never experienced before in her life, and another five further minutes of catching their breath.

“My dad is going to kill me,” Ino says, conversational, a smile shining on her face.

Sakura chuckles, and suddenly finds herself unable to stop. Ino’s smile breaks into laughter, too, until they’re holding onto each other and laughing almost hysterically. Sakura has never felt so  _ light _ .

-

When Tsunade announces that Kakashi will not be fully well for several weeks and tells them that they will have a temporary captain assigned to them, Sakura understands. Kakashi may have been training to use his Sharingan more but it still takes a toll on him. But, when Tenzou steps into the room, on the other hand, she gags on her own spit and has a coughing attack, because  _ what _ ? Tenzou is an Anbu captain! He has other (more important) duties than babysitting a couple of teenage ninjas!

Tsunade sends her a dark look and Naruto looks increasingly confused when Tenzou rushes forward to make sure she isn’t dying or something. No, no dying was to be had, just confusion all around.

“For the sake of everyone’s sanity, and, seeing as you already know the replacement I’ve decided on,” Tsunade finally says when they’re all back in order, “Tenzou will be taking lead of your team. In addition, another, fourth member will be assigned to your team for the duration of your infiltration into Orochimaru’s base.”

“Will be, shishou?” Sakura inquires. She would’ve expected a new teammate to be assigned at the same time as Tenzou.

“I expect to assign him tomorrow morning,” Tsunade looks right peeved at her own statement before turning something of a glare on Naruto and Sakura, “You are dismissed.”

So. They leave. Naruto is still staring at Sakura with utter bewilderment as they get out of the Tower and head the few streets over to Ichiraku to a very late lunch.

“You know him?” he finally asks, when they’ve sat and ordered.

“Yeah,” Sakura says, and she feels pretty bewildered, too. “He uses mokuton, he’s taught me for years.”

“Huh.”

“ _ Yeah _ .”

-

Sakura doesn’t like Sai, which really isn’t surprising because nobody really likes him, other than Ino. Ino, who is apparently either a martyr or really a much better person than the rest of them. But it’s difficult, to have a third person on their team after Sasuke. It’s not that it hurts Sakura (no, it hurts  _ Naruto _ , and she is worried about that) but it is strange to have to suddenly realign all of their skills and tactics to include another person.

A person who is not very honest with them. There’s something about him, something about Sai that has her on edge, as if he could turn out to be a traitor at the drop of a hat.

She hopes the feelings are unfounded, because if she has learned anything over the years it is that it is best to have a team made up of people you trust. And--she wants to trust Sai. She just doesn’t feel she  _ can _ .

-

Their trip to the Tenchi Bridge is, in a word, strange. Sakura feels very disconnected from the whole thing, though the amount of tension between Sai and Naruto is enough to irritate her as well. She spends as much time as possible with Tenzou, spends as much time possible thinking and making herself okay with the things that might come.

The first time Sai sees her use mokuton is the second night, when they’re staying in the woods. Tenzou can really make a building on his own but it’s more  _ fun _ to do it together; Sakura does the details better anyway, and in the end they have nightingale floors, perfectly crafted slat-doors and shoji, and stunningly jointed walls and ceilings. The house itself melds back into the trees, and Sakura and Tenzou take a sentimental moment to admire their handiwork.

“Very good job, Sakura,” Tenzou says, in an admiring tone.

“We work well together, senpai,” she returns, and he ruffles her hair.

“Wait,  _ senpai _ ?” Naruto butts in, pausing to nod with approval when he actually sees the house.

Sakura rolls her eyes and lets Tenzou explain that; Sai is looking at her. Just. Looking. It’s unnerving, and to get out of his line of sight she goes inside, ahead of the rest of them.

He’s the first in after her, though, and when he speaks his voice is short, almost curt. “You use mokuton.”

“I thought Danzou knew everything happening in Konoha,” Sakura returns, keeping her own tone mild. She knows he’s Root, and now he knows that she knows. They stare at each other for a few moments, until Naruto and Tenzou bustle in and start talking dinner.

-

Sakura, when she has a second, wonders how the hell she went from being the star bookworm of the Academy to staring down Orochimaru and one of his henchmen with full intent to kill both of them. It’s amazing, but the moment Naruto speaks is, in fact, even more amazing. Orochimaru is obviously taunting Naruto, jibing him by comparing him to Sasuke, but the moment the Sannin asks him if he thinks he’s stronger than Sasuke, Naruto pauses. He glances over at Sakura, who’s alternating between staring at him and glaring at Kabuto.

“I may not be, but Sakura  _ is _ ,” he spits out. It does nothing to stop the chakra-cloak of the Kyuubi from engulfing him, and Tenzou and Sakura move at the same time to deal with that. Tenzou sets up the wooden posts and Sakura, who has inherited more of Hashirama than most people probably realize, manifests an actual wooden hand that rises out of the ground and sucks the chakra off of him.

It isn’t opportune, at all. It doesn’t help that when they turn back Orochimaru is just. Gone. Kabuto must have followed, but to their confusion Sai is also gone. 

It pisses her off that her suspicions of Sai are well-founded, and she’s more interested in punching the shit out of him than searching for Sasuke. Well, if she finds Sasuke she’ll punch the shit out of him, too, because she really isn’t feeling too discriminating at that point. Frankly, the one she wants to find the most is Orochimaru, because Orochimaru is a piece of  _ shit _ who deserves to  _ burn to death _ for everything that he’s done to everyone Sakura loves.

She’s...a little angry.

And that anger doesn’t go away, even when they follow Orochimaru’s trail and confirm Sai is with him. Even when they have Sai again in front of them, she’s furious.

Once they have Kabuto trussed up, it’s down into the hideout itself they go. The entire underground compound feels dreadfully cut off from the world, like a big stone box with no actual connection to nature. Sakura feels claustrophobic, and she can tell that Tenzou feels the same.

It doesn’t help when they decide to split up in order to search faster. But maybe all of that anger that’s built up in Sakura’s chest helps, because she’s so on edge that when she hears a different part of the compound blow out she is immediately heading to where the noise came from, Tenzou following, to where Naruto and Sai’s little trackers are.

-

Her first glimpse of Sasuke in nearly three years is not exactly a glimpse, because the sun is behind him, casting him like a full-black silhouette. Part of her is actually impressed at the theatrics. Most of her just screams “That over-dramatic  _ prick _ !” until that’s the only thought in her head.

He comes down to them, to Naruto, but Naruto is not the one who reacts.  _ Sakura _ is the one who reacts, the moments of shocked stillness giving her a means to respond, the nature energy coming to her like nothing after all the blood and sweat and tears she has poured into her training. She hoists Naruto away at the same, effortless speed that Sasuke moves at, gently corrals him and Sai to Tenzou in two breaths.

For once, Sasuke looks at her with something like surprise in his eyes, though his face doesn’t show it. That surprise boils to something baser, darker, as though Sakura has ruined his day.  _ Prick! _ echoes through her mind, louder and stronger. Naruto looks at her as though he’s never seen her before, awe on his face. Tenzou, through it all, is smiling slightly.

Sakura lets out a breath, inhales, and slides into the first form that Katsuyu had shown her, all those months before.

-

The only thing that saves Sasuke’s skinny over-dramatic ass is the arrival of Orochimaru. Sakura’s fuming the entire way back to Konoha, as is Naruto, albeit for different reasons. The only person who seems to be undisturbed by the entire thing is Sai, but that’s only because he hasn’t figured out how to show his emotions appropriately. All for the best, really.

Tsunade, on the other hand, is the picture of calm control when they return to Konoha. She seems okay with everything that has happened, though when Naruto, Sakura and Sai leave Sakura can see her teacher’s frown lines begin to show.

Sai leaves them as soon as they get out of the Tower, and Sakura feels relieved, almost bad that she feels relieved. Sai is okay for the moment, in her book, but she wants some time alone. Naruto waves her goodbye when he sees Iruka heading into Ichiraku. Alone, finally, she heads off to their old training ground.

She meditates for nearly a half hour, trains for two further hours until she’s furiously hungry and almost asleep on her feet. Her mind is running in circles, considering what-ifs and could-have-beens, ways that she could’ve gotten both Orochimaru and Sasuke. Hell, they didn’t even get  _ Kabuto _ , in the end.

Eventually the day and her vigorous workout gets to her, and she knows she just needs food, a bath, and some damn sleep.

She wanders back into town, feet automatically taking her toward Yakiniku Q even though what she mostly wants is sleep. Sakura’s so out of it that she’s been seated before she even notices that somebody has been calling her name, and then it takes her a few minutes to realizes that Ino is heading toward her, leaving Asuma and her team behind at another table.

“You okay?” Ino asks when she slides into the seat opposite Sakura. Sakura can’t really do more than stare at her.

“Sakura?” Ino says, quieter, and she does look concerned.

“Tired,” Sakura says, after a further few moments.

“Did you,” Ino’s voice goes even quieter, “see Sasuke?”

Sakura sighs, rubs her palms up and down her face, as if to shake the memories off. “Can we not…?”

Ino’s lips purse, but to her credit she doesn’t complain, just says, “For now. God, you look like you’re going to fall asleep right here.”

“Aren’t you here with your team?” Sakura asks. She feels a little petulant now that her solitary moping has been interrupted, but on the plus Ino forcing herself to interact has woken her up a bit.

“They’ll be fine,” Ino pulls her hair over her shoulder, and in between inspecting for split ends she levels an intent stare at Sakura, “You, on the other hand, need a chaperone.”

-

Sakura is  _ so fucking glad _ to go back to normal life after the mission. She’s actually sort of sick of seeing her teammates all the time; frankly, she wants to go back to work at the hospital, even if it’s only for a few days.

Waking up to find Ino has stolen all of her pillows is a great feeling, even if she’s also stolen Sakura’s favorite sleeping shirt at the same time. It is a great feeling, but it’s also bizarre as all hell. She slips out to wash her face before heading to make breakfast, yawning all the while. Tsunade gave them, Team Tenzou or whatever they’re called now, the full day free of any interruptions, and unless she hallucinated it, Ino has the day free, too.

It’s the best morning she’s had since...well, really, ever. Since the day has started so nice, she’s really not expecting it when Kakashi appears on her tiny apartment’s balcony.

She opens the door rather reluctantly while Ino starts laundry. “Do you need something, Kakashi-sensei?” she asks.

“Yamato asked for your help with, er,” Kakashi trails off. “Naruto.”

“Naruto?” she asks, doesn’t wait for an answer before then asking, “Where?”

“Training field five,” Kakashi says, before disappearing.

Sakura grumbles as she gets her backup duty outfit on, the one with the cropped shirt and matching skirt that she rarely wears, throws some snacks into her weapons pouch next to the weapons themselves, and gives Ino a peck on the nose before heading off to the training field.

Naruto’s there, sitting in front of Kakashi, who seems to be explaining something to him. Ten meters away from them, Tenzou sits, and Sakura goes to sit next to him.

“This will be practice for you, Sakura,” Tenzou says, “to learn how to deal with a bijuu.”

-

The next day, Sakura finds herself in what seems to be another world, a world that is made up of hundreds of Narutos who all look like they’re either constipated or working really hard on something. She got a very, very bare-bones explanation of what Naruto was doing and recognizes the technique of learning but it’s still a little perplexing to watch.

But since Tenzou wants her to be a part of it, she sits and watches for the first half of the day, watches how Tenzou weeds out the clones that start generating Kyuubi chakra. She did make lunch for them, or rather Ino made her a ridiculously large bento and there is no way Sakura can eat all of the food on her own.

The afternoon is her turn to sit in the circle of foo dog pillars, and turn her awareness to the hundreds of Narutos trying to split leaves. It’s so... _ easy _ . Sakura’s used to the sitting and the focusing, having spent the better part of a month doing it in the Shikkotsu Forest.

In fact, she soon finds birds landing on her shoulders and outstretched arm because she’s so in tune with nature. The half day allows her to get experience expelling nature energy but for the most part, she just lets it be. Tenzou’s watching her and occasionally they talk. Kakashi is leaning against a tree, and honestly neither she nor Tenzou are sure if he’s asleep or actually reading the book in front of his face.

Naruto succeeds; he also passes out for a good ten minutes after succeeding. They camp out in the field after that, Kakashi builds a fire and Tenzou disappears for about an hour to go get food.

Sakura allows herself to wonder, for a few moments, if they would ever have these idyllic moments if Sasuke had remained in Konoha. How much their lives would be different.

-

Sakura doesn’t sleep much, the next few days. First Naruto stays up all night the next night to try (and succeed at) cutting the massive waterfall that Tenzou made. Then it’s the combining of his wind chakra and rasengan, and even with Tenzou and Sakura swapping duties every two hours it’s exhausting work. Thankfully it’s likewise exhausting for Naruto, or the two of them would be dead with the strain the entire thing is having on them.

Then, when Team 10 returns.

She isn’t there. She  _ isn’t _ fucking there when Ino and Choji and Shikamaru get back, and only when they are informed by a messenger does Kakashi send them into the village, give them the rest of the day off.

Ino is not at her parent’s house, with Choji or anywhere Sakura could think to check before heading home. She’s actually worried, when she’s letting herself in and throwing her things onto the kitchen table.

Then she finds a shuddering mound of blankets atop her bed, and she has to bite back the tightness in her own throat as she peels them back, presses a kiss to Ino’s head, and leaves her to take a quick shower and rustle up some food. It isn’t long that she’s gone, and when she’s back she has tea for Ino and herself.

The funeral isn’t until the next day, and once Sakura gets some tea and food into Ino she opens up, tells Sakura everything that had happened.

There isn’t a whole lot that Sakura can do, other than be there, but she does that to the best of her abilities. Inoichi stops by in the late evening, wraps Sakura up in one of his over-tight but wonderful hugs, and takes Ino home.

Sakura has trouble sleeping that night, and finally at midnight she packs a change of clothes, and creeps over to the Yamanaka’s massive house. Kaori lets her in, points her up to Ino’s room.

Ino’s not sleeping, but staring out the window from a cocoon of blankets. She looks at Sakura with red eyes, and nudges the blankets up so she can be wrapped in a hug.

-

After the funeral it’s four days. Four days of absolutely no contact from Team 10 and Kakashi, waiting for Naruto to finish his jutsu so they can go act as backup. Tenzou is in charge of that, Sakura’s making sure her gear and Naruto’s and Tenzou’s is ready to go, and catching Sai up to speed on everything.

The last mostly occurs while they’re travelling to the rendezvous point Shikamaru had left, Naruto a little rough around the edges but the rest of them in peak form.

Their arrival is a little over-the-top, Sakura would say, but as soon as they’ve arrived Tenzou sends them off after Shikamaru, assisted by Pakkun.

Sakura is maybe a little  _ too _ excited with the prospect of battle, but she’s been sitting around for days watching Naruto do stuff, she wants to burn off some steam.

-

And...she doesn’t get to.

-

_ And _ ...she doesn’t get to again, instead having to patch Kakashi and Naruto up enough so they can get back to Konoha, thankfully a short trip. There is some bad news there, with how damaged Naruto’s arm is, but there is  _ good _ news, that two of the Akatsuki are dead and they have a shorter list of people to worry about.

-

About that shorter list--

Sakura doesn’t think much of their massive-scale mission to find Uchiha Itachi; Itachi has managed to stay out of Konoha’s grasp for  _ years _ and to expect eight of them to be able to find him is something of a folly, but she goes along. Maybe she’ll get to see Sasuke. Maybe she’ll get to finish kicking Sasuke’s ass.

Neither of those things happen; again, Naruto is the one to see Sasuke, and in a bizarre twist Itachi is apparently dead. Nobody can explain it because nobody was witness to it,  _ and _ they have no fucking clue where Sasuke is. She feels pretty damn justified.

Then it’s Jiraiya.

Gods.

Sakura is in the hospital day in and day out then, and she only hears when she stops by the Tower, and only Shizune is there. Her first instinct is: Naruto.

But Naruto is the type to push others away when hurt, not unlike Sasuke, so she waits, and when Naruto is out wandering Konoha in the middle of the night she goes to his apartment and, accepting that maybe she’s an idiot, cleans the whole place up. She stocks some fresh Ichiraku takeout in the fridge, some vegetables too because she can hope, and leaves a cherry-blossom scented candle burning in one open window when she leaves.

-

Naruto finds her in her office-that’s-more-of-a-closet in the hospital when Jiraiya’s message has been decoded, after Fukasaku has told him that he will learn to be a sage. He looks jittery, and as soon as the door is slid closed behind him, he lays at least a dozen questions on her, so quickly that she understands none of them.

Her expression is enough to make him stop, take a breath, and ask in a calmer, slower tone, “Is it hard?”

Sakura blinks at him, because at the time she doesn’t know what he’s asking about.

“Learning to become a sage?” he adds, beginning to look desperate.

“Yes,” she says, and the desperation gives way to dismay. “You’ll have to work harder than anything. But you can do it.”

“I can?” he asks her.

“ _ Yes _ , that’s what you do. You succeed.”

-

She’s makes it to the hospital as quickly as she can, once the Akatsuki intruders have appeared in the village, fighting an internal war with herself all the way there. On one hand, Sakura knows that as a medic and Tsunade’s disciple, that she should be making sure that the people of Konoha are safe and healthy but--

Fucksake,  _ nobody _ is doing anything effective. Arguably, Iruka is doing more by dragging the wounded to the hospital than those getting wounded by trying to fight Pain. The whole thing is absolutely futile, and that point is just hammered home when Pain destroys most of Konoha, taking the lives of thousands in one fell swoop.

There’s no one else  _ there _ , really, and when Naruto appears, Sakura knows what she needs to do. She takes two segments of Katsuyu, one for Naruto, one for herself, and once she has made sure that Tsunade is safe she flickers down next to Naruto.

He’s earned a few moments of calm, thankfully, long enough so that Sakura can center herself, hand one of the smaller Katsuyus over to Naruto. She only needs a few moments to gather the nature energy she needs to keep up Sage Mode for nearly fifteen minutes. Naruto catches the hand his Katsuyu was in, smiles beatifically at her.

“I get it,” he says.

She nods, smiles in return. “Knew you would.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> At age 17, Haruno Sakura punches a literal god, the reincarnated effigy of Uchiha Madara, and her former asshole teammate in the face.

The six enemy shinobi don’t let them stand still for long, but it doesn’t really matter to Sakura and Naruto. Where their teamwork was normally pretty solid, nothing outstanding really, suddenly there seems to be an unspoken method of communication.

Within what seems to be seconds they have four of the shinobi down, for all intents and purposes actually dead. Nothing of a challenge, which both concerns Sakura and exhilarates her. Some distant part of her mind is muttering over how few people are blessed with Sage abilities, how long it has been since the world has seen true Sages, but she ignores that, focuses in on the remaining bodies. They whittle down, communicating in hand-signs shortened from those Kakashi taught them.

With Sakura’s knowledge of what Shikamaru and the others found out, and Naruto’s willingness to do remarkably stupid things without thinking, it doesn’t take long for Naruto to depart Konoha, heading north. He has one of the black chakra plugs pricked into his hand, and Sakura trusts him to figure it out. She would follow but there’s the rest of Konoha’s remaining population to consider.

She doesn’t think about how she can no longer feel Chouza’s chakra, or Kakashi’s, or the thousands of civilians that had failed to get evacuated in time.

She heads to Tsunade, to Katsuyu, and begins seeing to those who are still on the front lines.

-

The dead revive while Sakura is picking her way through the rubble that was the hospital. All of a sudden she can feel the chakra of those lost--Shizune, Chouza, Kakashi, all of the shinobi she cannot name but knows on sight, the civilians.

She keeps working because the work is more important, now that there are people,  _ living _ people, under the stones and broken wood. It’s easier to deal with that, once she can tell where the people are. Creating wooden covers for them to keep the stones and debris off is all well and good, but then she’s so focused saving people from suffocation and being crushed that she has no time to get them completely out.

By the time she’s moved on to the residential areas around the hospital, Iruka has crews of able-bodied shinobi and civilians working to dig out those Sakura had found, and is sending more crews to scour the rest of the village. Those shinobi who had revived have questions, but given that nobody has answers yet, they merely pitch in to help with rescues.

Sakura’s running on empty by the time she heads back to where Tsunade is, where she knows she will find Shizune. Everyone else is heading in the same direction, and she finds not just Shizune, but Iruka and Ino and Inoichi with the Hokage. Ino is helping Shizune, but glances up to meet Sakura’s eyes. Red and exhausted.

They’re taking Tsunade on a pallet back to a tent that Hinata and her teammates had set up when Naruto returns, with Kakashi. The mere fact of knowing that he’s back, and safe, is enough for the moment. But she can’t focus on him, more than ensuring he’s fine. There’s too much that needs to still be done, too many that need to still be saved.

-

She wants to rest. She wants to have a fucking minute to herself but--

If it’s not the hospital, Tenzou needs her help with rebuilding. Rudimentary things; houses for the civilians, dorms for the shinobi, basic stores to replace those lost. With her help it means that Tenzou isn’t exhausted as quickly as he would be, but with her help it means that she is exhausted twice as fast. Tsunade, thank whatever gods may be smiling on them, is out of commission for only a few days. Yes, she is still in recovery and still weak for several days after, but it means that despite sending Danzo to the Land of Iron, the council has no ground to appoint a new Hokage, and  _ that _ means Danzo can’t get away with whatever he’s planning.

But, really, Danzo isn’t a problem.

Not after the fiasco that is the Hokage Summit.

-

Sakura only hears about it afterwards, because she can’t leave to chase Naruto and Sasuke when the village is still healing, when there could be another attack at any time. She understands why Naruto is going, in an abstract sense; it’s their job as Konoha shinobi to take care of Sasuke, and Naruto in particular feels...protective of that. Hell, it doesn’t hurt to be fucking honest for once, Naruto is protective about Sasuke and has been for years, and Sakura really wants to talk about it but since they’re going to  _ war _ she figures there’s better ways she can spend her time.

Tenzou finds her after; when they know what is happening, that Naruto will be going to be “protected”, as if he isn’t one of the biggest assets they  _ have _ \--

“I’m going with him,” Tenzou says, as she helps him finish shoring up the Academy and Tower. He looks better rested than he had been, and he even smiles a little when he adds, “Iruka-sensei is going with us, too.”

Sakura nods, worry lessened a little bit. She trusts that Tenzou and Iruka will prevent Naruto from going full-on nine tails, but most of her still badly wishes for Naruto to be with them, helping to protect the world as they know it.

-

She isn’t the only one who feels that Naruto would be a better asset as part of the united shinobi forces or whatever they’re calling themselves. Ino slips into her bedroll two days out from the chosen battlefield, wraps her with all her limbs as if they can merge into one person.

“We’re going to die,” Ino says, voice numb and already somewhat broken.

“We’re  _ not _ going to die,” Sakura whispers harshly back, tucking her hands around the back of Ino’s neck. “And if we do we will face it like the shinobi we are.”

Ino draws a shuddering breath, buries her face under Sakura’s chin. Sakura half-thinks she’s fallen asleep there when Ino says, “I wish Naruto was here.”

Sakura buries her face in Ino’s hair, which smells like dirt and sweat and faintly of the lavender shampoo she uses. “He’ll be there,” she says quietly, with conviction. “He’s too stubborn to stay cooped up.”

Ino’s breath hitches, and her fingers move in circles on Sakura’s back until both of them are asleep.

-

It’s hard to draw a line between where the war was not and where the war now is. There’s blood splattered all over her smock and her gloves and she is exhausted from spending the last day and a half on her feet. There’s no real time to rest, not when they’re at war, but all Sakura wants is a fucking  _ minute _ , just a  _ minute _ to collect her breath and stretch.

It helps once Naruto’s there and able to distinguish enemies from allies, but that doesn’t exactly help her exhaustion. (she  _ knew _ he would be there, she reminds herself fiercely, and hopes that wherever Ino is she is safe)

_ You are a medic, _ she has to remind herself through it all,  _ medic, medic, medic. You need to stay safe, stay off the front lines until there’s no choice left _ .

Until, suddenly--sadly--there is no choice left.

-

Madara Uchiha is somewhat of a letdown, truth be told. Maybe it’s partially the fact that Sakura immediately is teamed up with one reincarnated Senju Hashirama (ok, what the hell, he’s really nice and they actually work well together?) and together they set upon him, or maybe it’s the fact that he’s grossly overshadowed by the _giant fucking bijuu currently rampaging_ _across the landscape_.

It’s probably telling that Sakura isn’t even surprised at that point.

-

What the hell is happening? Sakura doesn’t really know, other than that Sasuke has appeared and she’s practically vibrating with the overwhelming urge to punch him in the face. But they’re in the middle of a war and as far as she knows he’s not actively trying to kill her or her friends, so she lets him be.

In fact, letting him be is probably for the best, because he and Naruto are the reincarnations of the sons of the Sage of Six Paths and--

Really, Sakura doesn’t give a shit about that. What she gives a shit about is the fact that the bijuu they’d trapped somehow turned into literally the Lady Kagura who apparently was actually sealed in the goddamn moon. It’s been a long day. It’s going to be an even longer day.

-

Punching a god in the head is a lot less impressive from the other side, Sakura considers. She’s both exhausted and exhilarated, and finally able to take stock of the aches and pains of herself and the others. What with the whiplash of jumping through alternate dimensions, Obito dying (she hopes permanently, if only for Kakashi’s sake), Naruto and Sasuke saving the fucking world--

Hah, Sasuke. Sasuke and Naruto.

After they left the alternate dimensions, after Obito and saving the fucking world, it apparently isn’t enough for Sasuke, and Sakura isn’t getting left behind this time. Hell no.

Sakura doesn’t even hesitate to re-release her seal, to take a moment of calm once she reaches the Valley of the End. Naruto and Sasuke are already there, so she takes their surprise as a chance to manifest her  _ Mokujin no jutsu _ , wreathed in three wooden dragons. Sasuke somehow has his  _ Susanoo _ out, and Naruto has his golden mantle. They break apart when she intercedes, and though Sakura thinks they each yell something to her, she does not hear.

No, she’s too fucking furious.

Naruto pauses for a moment, and chakra explodes out from him to form Kurama. The chakra-fox howls, and three move as one.

-

Sakura figures she’s the winner when she creates a nearly complete  _ Shin Sūsenju _ and the Valley of the End is all but obliterated. Naruto spits beast-balls left and right while Sasuke tries to do something with Amaterasu, but finally it’s just down to them, nearly empty of chakra, punching it out like they’re back to being stupid kids in the school yard.

Naruto and Sasuke go down together, and after a moment of swaying, Sakura follows.

-

So. In total: Sasuke’s jaw and left leg as a whole are broken, Naruto has three broken ribs and two bruised ones and most of the bones in his right hand are broken, Sakura has one broken rib and three bruised ones, and they’re all covered in some pretty ugly bruises.

The only thing still keeping Sakura going is adrenaline and the remaining dredges of anger. She feels empty, aching and exhausted by the time Kakashi finds them, all on the verge of passing out from chakra exhaustion. Actually, Sasuke and Naruto are passed out, holding hands, and once Kakashi arrives he fishes up some chakra from somewhere and dumps a suiton on them to wake them up so they can, in turn, break the Tsukuyomi.

And--

That’s it.

They’re done.

-

It’s a long time to pick up the pieces. When they get back to Konoha--and it’s days, weeks after they've scoured the battlefields for the wounded and the bodies--life there is as much returned to normal as it can be for the civilians and shinobi there. They are welcomed back but not just welcomed--they are celebrated.

Naruto fits right into that, one of the saviors of the world, their golden boy. Never is it mentioned that Sakura was the one to patch everyone up, Sakura was the one to kick Sasuke’s  _ ass _ , Sakura was the one making sure the things that needed to happen did.

She’s thankful for that.

It’s bad enough that she’s now being lauded as the second coming of Hashirama by the entire fighting force of the shinobi nations, not just the second coming of Tsunade. People know her now, on the street, with her pink hair and her seal and the scars criss-crossing her body that she got as a  _ child _ . Maybe that is what flips the switch; but maybe it’s Ino waking up from nightmares of being forced to kill her teacher, maybe it’s how Kakashi flinches whenever anyone suddenly moves near him, maybe it’s Naruto, training until he’s exhausted because he feels that there’s still enemies around him.

She doesn’t ask anyone for permission; no, she finds Tenzou, weeks after they’ve returned and he’s almost back to full health, and asks him to help her build a clinic.

-

It’s for the kids; all of them, whether they had family who participated in the war or not, the orphans at the orphanage, even the most well-adjusted of Iruka’s classes.

But then--Sakura looks around at her peers, her juniors and seniors who were  _ there _ , and realizes it’s not enough. She feels like she knew this, knew it from Sasuke, that the system is poisoned. Tsunade talks about it and has talked about it, yes, but now that Sakura sees it with her own eyes she realizes something: the system may be poisoned, but she’ll be damned if she can’t heal it.

After all, the people say she is the second coming of the First Hokage. She might as well prove them right.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> At age 25, Haruno Sakura is happy. (something of an epilogue)

Sakura wakes with a headache and an arm wrapped around her middle. Ino yawns into her ear, nuzzles her.

They need to get up, Sakura has a breakfast meeting with Shikamaru and Tsunade and Ino has to be at the clinic for morning check-in. But it’s early; Sakura can’t see the sun through the curtains and Ino is  _ so _ warm. She flips over so they’re face-to-face, nuzzles Ino right back.

“You know what day it is?” Ino says, voice crackly-low from sleep.

“Mm.” Sakura knows. It’s hard not to, with the memorials that have been planned and the flurry of activity from all of the other countries. Eight years, and the world is still on its way to recovery. “Was gonna stop by Naruto’s, later.”

“Invite him to dinner,” Ino yawns, pulls Sakura close and squishes her face into her collarbones. Ino never grew much taller, but she is rounded where Sakura is solid muscle. Soft to Sakura’s hardness.

_ Helps not being a soldier anymore _ , Sakura thinks. They’ve changed, but they’ve not changed. Ino retired, as did the vast majority of the shinobi that had survived the war, and turned to working at their mental health clinic. Sakura stayed on as a shinobi, if only because the status she gained from that helped her as she worked through the governmental system of the Land of Fire and Konoha.

“What do you want for breakfast?” Sakura asks in a whisper.

She can feel Ino’s lips curve in a smile as the other replies, “You.”

-

Sakura’s attitude toward Sasuke has mellowed a lot, over the years. It helps, maybe, that he’s been integral to convincing the Kage and the Daimyos of the countries that the system of hidden villages is unnecessary, as is training so many innocent children in the ways of bloodshed. The concept of talking things out instead of sending assassins is apparently revolutionary.

It also helps that wherever Sasuke is, Naruto is all but guaranteed to follow. Once he realized how much paperwork and studying would go into his achieving a shinobi rank equivalent to his abilities, he broke a door and a table and proclaimed himself the new Frog Sage, fuck job qualification and killing people for a living.

They live out of the way, in a joint project of Sakura and Tenzou’s outside of the main body of Konoha, and on this particular day Sakura is inviting them to dinner, bringing several books of Jiraiya’s that Tsunade had passed on for Naruto, and “gifting” them some of the zucchini that keeps appearing out of fucking  _ nowhere _ in their backyard. Sakura blames Sai, because Sai has taken to gardening like a fish to water and has a weird obsession with zucchini.

Since it’s a Saturday the kids are still at home, and she’s swarmed by half a dozen children all shorter than her waist as soon as she steps foot into the sprawling house. Most of them she knew from the clinic or hospital before Naruto had adopted them, but all of them are now as familiar to her as if they are her own nephews and nieces. Hell, they technically are.

“Momo,” she calls to the oldest girl, who is very quiet but has a fierce interest in plants and bugs, “Are your fathers here?” 

Momo nods and disappears deeper into the house, leaving Sakura to amuse Aiko, Aoi, and Kenji, the three youngest, while the others disperse to chores and play. Aiko and Kenji are twins, Aoi their honorary triplet because all three of the children get along like a house on fire and look like blood siblings. They are very easily amused just by being picked up, and Sakura is a little thankful that they don’t have more complex interests in games because picking up children is the  _ easiest _ .

Naruto interrupts their play with a yell of, “Feeding time! Go find your father, he could use some help.”

He pulls her into a hug while the children tumble away, screeching as they go into the house to hunt down Sasuke and help him with the cats. Sakura hugs him as fiercely as she always does, maybe a little tighter considering the timing.

“How are you?” he asks, when they’ve pulled away and Sakura has presented the basket of books and vegetables to him.

“Working,” she says with a shrug, and his eyes crinkle a little with sad amusement. “Ino is inviting you to dinner tonight.”

“You as in me and Sasuke or you as in--”

“--the whole horde,” Sakura interrupts. “We cleaned up the garden, there’ll be more than enough room for everyone. I think she’s inviting Choji and Shikamaru, too, maybe more.”

“Well, we’re free,” Naruto’s face beams in a smile, “we’ll be there. School starts tomorrow, you know.”

“I know,” Sakura can’t help smiling in return. Naruto had been on the forefront of many developments in Konoha, not the least of which was converting the former Academy into a civilian school. Iruka had actually cried when he had been asked to head the school. “You’ll be down to, what, three during the day?”

“Yep,” he actually looks a little misty-eyed at that, runs a hand across his eyes. “You free for a while?”

“Rest of the day,” Sakura follows him into the house, toes her shoes off curiously, “why?”

He doesn’t say anything, just smiles again in the beaming way that he does, and leads her back into the house.

They pause outside a large room, and Naruto cracks the shoji, gestures her forward to look in. Sakura melts at the sight that greets her; Sasuke has two children sitting on his lap, his arms around them as he bottle feeds one of the week-old kittens he rescued from drowning. Slowly he eases the cat into the hands of Yoshi, their oldest boy, and murmurs approvingly as he feeds the cat. Another kitten, eased into the hands of Sayuri, who’s focused so hard she nearly drops the bottle.

“It’s okay,” Sasuke says, smiling at her as he picks the bottle up and pops it back into the kitten’s mouth. “You’ll learn.”

-

Sakura kisses Naruto on the cheek when she leaves, tells him, “You’ll always be happy.” She doesn’t need to convince him; it’s easy for both of them to see that it’s true.

-

Ino meets her at the front door of their two-story house, the pinched look of a hard morning at the clinic giving way to a smile when she sees Sakura.

“Afternoon,” she says, tugging Sakura into the house and giving her a peck on the lips.

“Tough morning?” Sakura asks, rubbing Ino’s back and feeling the tension in her shoulders ease almost immediately.

“It’s always a tough morning,” Ino replies, a little bitterly, but there’s a hint of a smile when she speaks again, “Kaori-chan opened up a lot; she started playing with some of the others. Her brother also dropped by and asked about moving her out to live with him and his wife when he settles back in Konoha.”

Sakura lets Ino’s talk wash over her, making notes of how the children are doing, trying to make a mental list of the ones she should visit. There’s just hardly any  _ time _ anymore, now that she’s working with Tsunade and Shikamaru to lead Konoha, and she misses it, misses her kids.

“You’re thinking too hard,” Ino says, going to water the overabundance of plants in the living room while the stew on the stove finishes. Sakura had started it before leaving, and it smells heavenly.

“There’s just so much to do,” Sakura says, trying not to complain. “I feel like I can never do the things that I  _ want _ to anymore.”

Ino sets the water pitcher down, comes over and stands on her toes to press a kiss to Sakura’s nose. “Say the word and I will gladly impersonate you for a day. Or hell, we could go on vacation, Shikamaru knows what he’s doing even if he complains about it.”

Sakura feels so overwhelmed in that moment, with nothing but love and fondness for her best friend, her wife. She twitches a hand behind her back to grow a bough of cherry blossoms, and leans down to kiss Ino before placing the flowers atop her head. They curl into a perfect crown.

“I love you,” Sakura says, after pulling away.

“I love you, too,” Ino replies, smiling.

They sit to eat at the table and talk about the evening gathering, feet intertwined, and Sakura sends thanks to whatever gods there may be that she is happy, content,  _ loved _ .


End file.
